SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS TO IMPROVE VILLAGE ECONOMICS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500420066-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 26, 1999
• Sequence Number: 66
• Publication Date: March 4, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2001/09/11: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500420066-0
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY 25X1A
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY India
SUBJECT Successful Efforts to improve Village Economics
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(BY SOURCE)
DATE ACQUIRED
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REPORT NO.
1. Arriving in India on this present visit and having traveled 25X1X
almost constantly during the past several weeks in the real India--the
rural areas--I am impressed by the change in attitude. Whereas three years
ago the villagers (who make up 85% of the population of India) were
lethargic and disinclined to face the responsibilities of life as citizens
of a free nation, today in general, they are alert to change and willing
to participate in it, even though it means hard work over a long period.
No longer can the villager blame the foreign Rai for a miserable diet and
ragged clothes. He recognizes that with independence has come a respon-
sibility for the nation tc ::,-?re for its own needs. Sometimes he trans-
lates thi,.. into a feeling that the Government should "spoon-feed" him
with subsidies and other assistance. But even in this occasional reaction
he is only proviiag that he is like many of his US and European cousins.
Most Indic.;, vill.^.gers realize that India will become the country of their
dreams only if they devote themselves wholeheartedly to the business of
improving their condition, both individually and collectively.
2. Evvu their conquerors have always commented upon the courtesy of the people
of India. Today, as a self-respecting national of a free country, the
Indian villager is as courteous as ever and, in addition, is anxious to
demonstrate to visitors his effort toward progress, whether it be in the
form of an improved fowl or a new foot-pedaled weaving unit. Five years
ago the outsider wan rarely invited into the home of a village family.
On this trip I have found it quite different, regardless of whether I am
on an official visit to a community or dust on my own, shooting pictures.
A few days ago in a remote West Bengal village which even in the dry
season can be arrived at only by almost impassable roads, I wandered off from
my group to speak to an old man. Neither of us could understand the actual
words of the other, but we got along famously nevertheless. The villager
invited us into his some. We gathered that he was a widower, but other
members of his family were living with him and they greeted us with smiling
friendliness and served refreshments. A daughter showed us, with pride,
some new brassware. As the ladies of the family posed for the click of the
Leica I could not but realize that I was in a new India.
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Th's report is for the use within the USA of the Intelligence components of the Departments or
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lv
ere are over 00 000 villages, and of course I have not been able to visit even
h
fair sample of these. But I have been in a sufficient number ?.o convince me
a
that it is the exceptiona]. village that has seen no change in the past five years.
In a country where formerly change took place in rural areas only in the slow
evolution of centuries, a difference can now be noted in many villages in a
matter of months. The progress often is small, but it is there. The Cvernment's
vast rural development program is taking root.
4. Five yearsago'India faced the future with little hope of "balancing food and
people." Ama4ngly, this is now within the realm of possibility. Withla
repetition of the favorable weather conditions that blessed the crops last
summer, India will be self-sufficient in food grains this year. This represents
a tremendous achievement, even though it does not mean that India's millions will
yet have anything resembling an adequate or balanced diet--most of them Will
still be poorly fed, and some, as'always, will barely escape starvation., It
does mean thut'India's agricultural production is coming close to meeting they;,,.:
country's minimum food requirements. Most of India possesses a combination of
soil and climate capable of producing two good crops a year. However, until
recently little was ever done to realize this potential through land reform
and the introduction of improved seed and fertilizer, farm implements, proper
animal utilization, etc. Perhaps' the greatest miracle I have seen in my present
travels through the rural areas ils the new enthusiastic effort in thisll-lirection.
5. In the Punjab;I met at Registrar of Cooperatives, one Mr Kapla, who had been
trained under Sir Malcolm Darling. I asked him if helcould
25X1X show me a typical village where the people, through their own efforts, have
made a bet ter life for themselves'. Immediately he took me to a village of
about 100 families situated on a 500-acre tract of land. This land hal-I been
fragment?-zed for countless generations as a result of inheritance subdivision.
A farmer might have a total of, say, ten acres, split up into as many a9
thirty separate little parcels. And the village itself, we were told, had been
a dirty, ill-smelling place, with no drainage facilities or even any deFent
paths or x1oadways. Within the past two years the villagers voted to consolidate
their holdings, and the land has now been "defragmentized" from hundreds of tiny
plots into 52Ifields, each containing the total amount of land previously owned
by an indii vidiial. family. The Government gave the community a grant of ,000
rupees (about $1,200), the village assessed itself a like amount and, i)n
addition, contributed its equivalent in voluntary labor. Today the village
has been transformed. The streets and lanes are almost all bricked and there
are good drains. Fifty motc:rized (electric) pumps have been installed by the
villagers,1 financed by loans from cooperative banks, 95% of which have mow
t,eeu pai.d ff. And plans are being drawn for a cooperative cold storage
plant for potatoes in two yearsl' time the fog of centuries has been lifted.
6. Although T: II' wee, invited to visit all of the homes in this community, I .,~d time
for only two and in these I was received most graciously. In one of tb homes
the hostess 'broke all tradition by bringing out her chest of finery and show-
ing me twal,beautiful shawls which she had made herself. I asked to hav them
displayed for the camera and her two daughters, girls around the age of 20,
draped them over their shoulders and posed smilingly--even as models mi ht have
done in a USA-type style show. This, too, was the new India. It could not
have happened back in 1949.
fisheries cooperative near Calcutta. The people of the local village were
among the poorest of India's poor, living in unthinkable squalor, with, an
income so low as to be almost negligible. Today, after five years of dedi-
cated community effort, it is almost impossible to realize thtt it is the
same village., Three thousand people have been working out their dentin
together. I The cooperative has flourished and several hundred acres of water-
hyacinth have been cleared away in order to make room for fish culture;) There
is a community center and homes are being built. Furthermore, the villagers
are out of I debt, having repaid in' full a sizable amount borrowed from i, e
Bank for Development.
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A great latent power ini India, as in many other underdeveloped countries, has teen
the unused skills and talents of her women. Today they are being unshackled and
at the present rate of progress ten years should see almost equal treatment of
the sexes. In the cities of India many formerly forbidden pursuits are now
open to women. Some have jobs as secretaries and others are employed in various
capacities in industry. ,India is beginning to realize that its woman-power can be an
be an important factor in industrial development, even as it has been in countries
like the US and Canada.
One thing that impreeseella visitor to the hinterland of India is the number of
local officials and business leaders who.have received their training in
Christian missionary institutions. Certainly in the Bengal and Punjab areas
at least',50% of the college=trained officials whom I met were educated in
mission schools. They are proud of this, even though they may be devout
Hindus or Sikhs.
621.42 Eu
786.3 Eu
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